Author Description

"The personalities of the twelve caesars of ancient Rome have profoundly impressed themselves upon the world. They formed the theme of that most readable of biographers, Suetonius. He had a lot to say about their sexual and other aberrations, and one of the purposes of the present book is to try to penetrate the fog of picturesque rumor and estimate how seriously the various stories can be regarded. But this is only one part of a general attempt to discover what sort of men these astonishing Caesars were. They bore perilous responsibility of governing an empire comparable in gigantic magnitude and diversity to the United States today. It is a matter of perennial concern to investigate how the potentates who wield such vast might, and the men who advise them, cope with their tasks, or fail to cope with them. To what extent, for example, are we justified, after a study of the scorching pages of Tacitus, in applying to the Roman caesars Lord Acton's saying that absolute power corrupts absolutely? This is one of a number of questions, relating to their exercise of authority, to which Michael Grant--calling in additional sources of information, such as coins and inscriptions--endeavors to answer."--Jacket